Senate leaders negotiate in federal budget standoff
WASHINGTON — Efforts to reopen the government and avert a default on the nation’s debt rested in the hands of the Senate’s top leaders after talks between House Republicans and the White House broke down Saturday.
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) sat down to negotiate for the first time since the 12-day-old government shutdown began, but there were no indications they had made significant progress. Still, Senate leaders made plans for a rare Sunday session in case they reach a deal, while the House adjourned for the weekend after a brief and at times chaotic session.
Early in the day, Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told House Republicans that President Obama had rejected their efforts to enter into more substantive negotiations, according to lawmakers who attended the closed-door session. Obama has insisted he would negotiate over the federal budget with the Republicans only after they first reopened the government and lifted the debt ceiling.
Boehner said it was now up to Senate Republicans to hold firm and extract concessions on the president’s healthcare law and federal spending. But Senate Republicans expressed frustration with the apparent indifference of their House counterparts to the political toll that their party has suffered from the shutdown and the threat of a potentially catastrophic default on the nation’s debt.
Since McConnell cut a deal last December with Vice President Joe Biden to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, he has largely stayed out of budget talks. With a potentially tough reelection battle that includes a challenge from his right, McConnell has emphasized conservative priorities, such as opposing measures on gun control and immigration reform.
His move to reenter the fray could reflect McConnell’s calculation that his ultimate political goal — to lead a Senate with a Republican majority — was imperiled by the hard-line position of Republicans in the House.
House Republicans have seen their leverage erode as Boehner has repeatedly failed to find a plan that could win a majority of his caucus and also be close to one the White House would discuss.
Expressing frustration with the day’s maneuvers, Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), the former vice presidential candidate and House Budget Committee chairman, accused the White House of “trying to cut the House out, and trying to jam us with the Senate.”
There were numerous signs that the mood in the Capitol had soured from Friday’s cautious optimism. Among them was a procedural tactic deployed by House Democrats to try to force a vote on a bill to reopen the government with no conditions. One by one, Democrats lined up to speak at the microphones. Republicans eventually ended what they denounced as a “show.”
The Senate efforts to end the standoff began with Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of a dwindling band of GOP moderates, who worked to build support for a compromise plan.
Separately, McConnell made entreaties to Reid. He asked Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) to begin informal talks with Democrats. That led to the meeting Saturday involving the two Republicans, Reid and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Senate’s No. 3 Democrat.
The gathering, in Reid’s office, lasted an hour.
“The conversation was extremely cordial but very preliminary — nothing conclusive,” Reid said at a news conference. “This should be seen as something very positive — even though we don’t have anything done yet and there is a long ways to go.”
Later in the day, Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic plan to suspend the debt limit through next year.
But senators from both parties said there was an urgent need to pass legislation to raise the nation’s borrowing limit as soon as possible before Thursday. The Treasury Department has said that it will no longer be able to borrow money on that day, raising the risk of default.
“This is playing with fire,” Schumer said. “I worry on Monday that when the American markets open, maybe because of this vote, that they will start worrying and not only will the stock market go down, but interest rates go up, the value of the U.S. treasuries decline.”
Reid and other Democratic leaders briefed Obama on the talks Saturday afternoon; no further talks between Reid and McConnell were expected Saturday night. Aides said the conversations between party leaders remained at an early stage.
Collins has offered a proposal to temporarily raise the debt limit and reopen the government in exchange for delaying a tax on medical devices that is part of Obama’s healthcare law. She said that plan continued “to attract bipartisan support” and that she planned to continue to consult with colleagues on both sides of the aisle. But Reid said her plan was “not going anyplace.”
“The real conversation that matters now is the one that’s taking place between McConnell and Reid,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said after attending a strategy session at which Republican senators were briefed on the talk.
Reid said Republicans had abandoned their drive to gut the Affordable Care Act and had focused on reducing government spending.
“Their No. 1 issue is to do anything they can to divert attention from the fools they’ve made of themselves on Obamacare,” he said.
Republicans have been sobered — and Democrats emboldened — by recent polls conducted by both sides and independent organizations. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, for example, indicated that the public overwhelmingly blamed the GOP and increasingly opposed an effort by conservatives to use the shutdown as leverage to dismantle Obama’s healthcare law.
That trend, were it to continue, could strengthen the position of Democratic senators in traditionally Republican states and hurt GOP candidates in Democratic-leaning states.
Notably, the compromise effort in the Senate was led by Collins, the only Republican who is seeking reelection next year in a state that Obama carried in 2012. Alexander, too, faces reelection. Both senators appear safe at this early stage.
But Collins in particular has said it is important for Republicans to improve their standing with voters. “There’s no doubt that the Republican poll numbers are appallingly bad — the Democrats are going down also. But there’s a more important issue here than poll numbers, and that is about our ability to govern and to show the American people that we can do what is right and that we care about them,” Collins said. “And I hope that isn’t lost in this continuing attempt to score partisan political points.”
Many House Republicans are inoculated against broader national political trends, thanks to the overwhelmingly Republican nature of their districts. More than two-thirds of House Republicans represent districts in which the GOP’s Mitt Romney defeated Obama by 10 percentage points or more in 2012. Of 232 Republicans serving in the House, only 17 represent districts that Obama won outright.
One of those Republicans, Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.), had a heated exchange on Saturday with a member of the House GOP leadership over what he said was the party’s failure “to be able to articulate specific objectives.”
“If Eric Cantor and John Boehner can’t answer the question, ‘What are we fighting for?’ that’s not good!” Rigell told Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), chairwoman of the House Republican Conference.
Other House Republicans charged that the White House was pitting Republicans in the two chambers against one another. “I think what he’s trying to do is undermine our position by getting the Senate to cut some kind of ridiculous deal,” said Rep. John Fleming (R-La.).
That is almost exactly the scenario that played out at the start of the year to resolve the so-called fiscal cliff. The deal worked out between McConnell and Biden won overwhelming approval in the Senate and forced House leaders to allow a vote that passed with only limited Republican support.
“We’re not going to roll over and take that,” Ryan said after leaving the closed-door Republican meeting.
But Boehner’s message to the rank-and-file was also an admission that the House had run out of options.
“If I’m sitting on the Senate side, I’m not going to sit around and say, ‘Gosh, hopefully the House Republicans will do something.’ I’m going to get to work,” said Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.), chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee. “It would be nice to be able to coordinate together, but I get that.”
after leaving the closed-door Republican meeting.
But Boehner’s message to the rank-and-file was also an admission that the House had run out of options.
“If I’m sitting on the Senate side, I’m not going to sit around and say, ‘Gosh, hopefully the House Republicans will do something.’ I’m going to get to work,” said Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.), chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee. “It would be nice to be able to coordinate together, but I get that.”
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